of seeing Mr. Lennox, and he talks so nicely to us, that I quite look forward to them."

"But," said Bessy, "perhaps as this is not a saint's day, he might not have come into our school. I was so sorry yesterday that I was obliged to stop at home, I could hardly help crying; grandmother said I might go, but I knew she felt very ill and would rather I stayed, so I made up my mind to do so."

"O," said Margaret, "Mrs. Tennant spoke so kindly to us about Whitsuntide; she told us that purity of heart was the great lesson we were to learn from this holy season, and she gave us that text, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,' for our Whitsuntide motto; and at the end she said, 'How can any little girl who truly desires to be pure in heart, go to a fair, where she knows she will hear and see things that are impure and wicked?' I thought that would have been enough to prevent me going to the fair, even if Mr. Lennox had not said so much to us about its being of the world."

The two little girls spent the afternoon and evening of the beautiful May-day together, having a long ramble after tea in the lovely fields and meadows which lay all around their pretty village; Cowslip went with them, as he would fol

low Margaret about just like a little dog, and after Margaret had taken Bessy home, and old Mrs. Neale had kissed and blessed her, and told her and Bessy they were two good lassies, she ran on to her own little cottage-home with a light and happy heart, and when she heard the rude noisy voices of the half tipsy men and boys returning late in the evening from the fair, she did not even regret not seeing the dancing bear. When after her simple evening prayers, which were offered up from a heart full of thankfulness to God, she laid her head upon her pillow, full of peace and love, she felt thankful that she had been spared the sinful sights and pleasures of the fair, and thought that she should always look back upon WhitMonday 18 as one of the happiest days of her life.

Lately published, price 2d.,

THE DAY THAT NEVER CAME:

A Tract illustrating the danger of delay in religious

matters.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

ALICE GRANT.

Where is it mothers learn their love?

In every Church a fountain springs,
O'er which th' eternal Dove

Hovers on softest wings.-Christian Year.

ALICE sat by the fire watching the slumbers of her little infant, and often would she lay down her work to wipe away the tears that filled her eyes. She had lost her first child just at the time when its innocent prattle and engaging ways rendered it each day more precious to its parent's heart; and the infant sleeper, though continually reminding her of the loved one she had laid in the grave, seemed yet a token of mercy sent to soothe her heart still aching under her late bereavement. Alice was a truly Christian woman. She knew that her first-born had been taken away from the evil to come, she loved to think that he had joined the company of whiterobed saints, his own garment pure and undefiled as theirs, and though the tears would dim. her eyes as she gazed upon her babe, there was as much of earnest gratitude in them as of natural grief.

The little glen of M, where Alice and her

husband dwelt, was now almost deserted. Lord R., to whom all the property belonged, had long been absent. Evil men had gained dominion in the land; men who hated all rule, and spurned at all authority; men who had not scrupled to slay even the Lord's anointed, the king whom His providence had set over them; so what wonder then that the Lord's people and His Church found little mercy at their hands. Those were grievous days for Scotland; the priests of the Lord were forbidden to minister His Sacraments to the people, and were sent forth from their homes and their flocks to beggary and starvation; the people, at least those among them who still were found faithful to their Church and prized the appointed means of grace, were harassed and persecuted. Heavy fines were imposed on any who should be found guilty of having worshipped God after the customs of their fathers, or received into their houses for food and shelter any of the ejected ministers. But in spite of all restrictions and persecutions, there were still many, who in secret places, in the darkness of the night, or in the wild mountain passes, met together to join in prayer and to receive the holy Sacraments from the appointed priests of the Lord. In M the persecutions had been great;

they were a poor but faithful people, ignorant of much of this world's learning, but they had learned this simple lesson, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Their worthy pastor had not ceased to impress upon them even in those troublous times the duty of obedience to their Church and loyalty to their king, and many of them, preferring martyrdom to disobedience and heresy, had been content to forsake home and property, and to go out, not knowing whither they went. Many cottages were now forsaken, and the little gardens overrun with weeds. The church had been defaced and spoiled of all its ornaments; rude and sacrilegious hands had overthrown the font, and mutilated and destroyed its rich carvings; the sacred quiet of the churchyard had been invaded, the simple cross of wood that marked the resting-place of the child of poverty, and the richer and more decorated shrine which had been erected to the memory of the noble and the wealthy, all were alike laid low and trampled under foot.

Robert and Alice Grant lived in a secluded part of the hamlet, and there had fortunately escaped the malevolent observation of those who sought with eager haste the destruction of all who remained faithful to their Church; none, alas !